British Cycling membership swells to 33,000

British Cycling has reported that its membership has swelled to 33,000, an increase of 16 per cent in the past 12 months. It’s the highest level of membership since the organisation formed in 1959.

Britain’s governing body for cycling published its annual report this week, outlining its performance in the past year.

“We now have 33,000 members and in September alone our membership grew by over 1,000 individuals, our biggest growth to date in a single month,” said BC chief executive Ian Drake.

“We have also seen an increase in the number of licence holders and increased participation at competitive and non-competitive events, bucking the national trend of a decline in sport participation.”

Much of the increase in membership can be attributed to the introduction of a ‘Ride’ membership alongside the existing bronze, silver and gold membership levels aimed more toward competitive cyclists. Over 3,000 signed up for Ride membership this year.

Two thirds of BC members belong to one of 1,500 affliated cycling clubs. BC is aiming to achieve 100,000 members by 2013.

BC’s annual report also states that there has been a 15 per cent increase in competitive events, showing that the sport in Britain is in rude health.

The success of the mass-participation Sky Ride events was also highlighted. More than 298,000 people have taken part in the free events since they started in July 2009.

British Cycling is the governing body for cycle sport, not for cycling. Ordinary cyclists have no need for a governing body.

Anthony Cartmell

Well done BC!

There is definitely a strong surge in cycling interest: the CTC is also at record membership levels at “around 60,000 people”, matching the previous record of 60,449 members in 1899 (when the club was 21 years old).

Dave H

A bit of a slip there – the governing body for Cycle Sport in England & Wales – seems to have forgotten that we have Scottish Cycling doing the job North of the Border and CTC Working for Cyclists across the other spectra of utility and general cycling, which they’ve been doing for almost 3 times as long.

Since Andrew Knights also noted the winding up of direct funding for Cycling England’s core costs* , it may also be worth highlighting that Cycling Scotland is not being shut down, due to the canny way it has been set up to deliver for the Scottish Government – as a not for profit limited company. Maybe this is the model (fitting well with David Cameron’s Big Society vision) of taking forward the Bikeability core standards and overall delivery of a uniform product, along with the many other ‘deliveries’ that CE managed to bring through in such a brief period of existence with such excellent value for money. *(CE pay for the specialists hired to deliver their projects with a miniscule core staff cost compared to the value of work delivered on the ground, to a degree which makes even a hard commercial organisation look a bit ‘fat’ on the admin side, and public bodies are way outside the range)

Perhaps if they too had opted for the Cycling Scotland model and levied say 1% on all the projects delivered to cover their establishment costs we would have a future for Cycling England. NB any surplus generated by such a not for profit company could then be gifted to a Charitable Trust – perhaps framed as the Cycling England Charitable Trust, which can then disperse this to further cycling projects.

A nice sustainable model of a commercial operation (independent of charity constraints) and charitable trust (with all the benefits that delivers) which I saw working very well for the Edinburgh Fringe and not unlike some of the Quaker Trusts.

Andrew Knights

Great to see. Sort of contradicts the need to get rid of Cycling England with cycling on the increase. Maybe Cycling England should become part of British Cycling? Would members be willing to fund the Â£200k cost of Cycling England each year? Maybe Go-Ride and Bikeability, for example could be combined reducing the cost? I would be happy paying another Â£5 a year to help with the good work Cycling England does, which I understand is nearly wholly by volunteers.